Just a heads up to anyone in the area that Brammo will be out with the Empulse RR at this year's ReFuel event on Sunday. This will be a good test for us to see if we can run with the "big boys" of the TTZero when we race at Laguna with the MotoGP at the end of July.

The event organizer was surprised that we wanted both of the available timed laps to set our fastest time as apparently the electric cars are too low on voltage after one lap to either complete a second or to go any faster. Sad. :(

Looking forward to showing them what an electric motorcycle can do! Send positive thoughts our way...

Have you worked out the 100% throttle bugs? I am just curious if you guys will be dialing anything up for an all out 2 lap blast. If, of corse you are at liberty to discuss such things.

Richard230

25 June 2011, 0740

I hear that NASCAR is going to be all over Infineon Raceway this weekend. Which got me to thinking - I wonder how long it will be before NASCAR will have an EV class? :D

BrammoBrian

25 June 2011, 0741

Kick some 4 wheel ass!

Have you worked out the 100% throttle bugs? I am just curious if you guys will be dialing anything up for an all out 2 lap blast. If, of corse you are at liberty to discuss such things.

Good question. We're always trying to make improvements and we've got a couple changes to the bike on both the hardware and motor controller software to try this weekend.

I kind of regret saying anything about operating at 85% power as I hate it when others make statements about "only" using 40% throttle, etc, etc... leaving the impression that there's an "excess" in performance that can't be used, when in fact, you're really just saying you haven't figured out the system integration well enough to extract the maximum performance from the vehicle. In the future, I promise to avoid statements like this as they are misleading IMHO. The truth is that we are fine tuning the motor controller settings on the bike to allow us to extract peak power from the motor, a very smooth power delivery with no blips, dips, or hiccups, and also maintain this performance throughout the battery voltage range during the course of the race.

BrammoBrian

26 June 2011, 1209

First session done with promising results. Steve ran a 1:47.3 in traffic, which is roughly equivalent to the Czysz qualifying time from the e-Power race last year. We'll see if he can do any better as the day progresses. Track time is severly limited, but we should get one more practice session, a "time trial" of two laps, and then a final practice session at the end of the day. A little challenging for Steve as he's running on the same track with electric bicycles, leading to some incredible closing speeds on other riders...

Oh yeah... Mission came out to play too! :O

DaveAK

26 June 2011, 1217

They let the motorcycles on with the bicycles?!!?!?

And does this mean Mission will be competing in the TTXGP in July do you think?

BrammoBrian

26 June 2011, 1325

They let the motorcycles on with the bicycles?!!?!?

And does this mean Mission will be competing in the TTXGP in July do you think?

Uh-oh. Mission just put the hammer down and ran some pretty fast laps while we had a technical glitch... Yeah, I think they'll be at the joint TTXGP/FIM ePower Laguna round. Time Trial is up next. Steve's going to have to come up to speed fast!

DaveAK

26 June 2011, 1331

Got the making sof an interesting few weeks. I like it!! (You may not like it quite so much, but you've still got to be a little excited about the extra competition. ;))

BrammoBrian

26 June 2011, 1818

Got the making sof an interesting few weeks. I like it!! (You may not like it quite so much, but you've still got to be a little excited about the extra competition. ;))

Well... that same glitch kept us from setting an official timed lap duing the Time Trial portion of the event, gifting the lap record for electric motorcycles to Steve Rapp of Mission Motors at a 1:43.5 (unofficially). That's roughly one second faster than the fastest lap Motoczysz ran in the race last year.

We got the Empulse RR back out for the final session and ran some fast laps ourselves, but it looks like we'll have to wait until the race to see how everyone really stacks up. At the moment, it looks like the racing's going to be very competitive this year!

Hats off to Mission for their success today. I'm sure those guys have been working hard, and they certainly deserved it!

Nuts & Volts

26 June 2011, 1851

It sounds like its going to be a sweet race at Laguna. I'm sure you guys will figure out the software (my guess) issue soon. More and more laps means more and more data to help isolate the issue. I wish i was out there still to see it all!

Skeezmour

26 June 2011, 2023

Glad your there Brian. Sure helps get you ready for the big race in July.

I'll see you there.

jazclrint

26 June 2011, 2333

Good question. We're always trying to make improvements and we've got a couple changes to the bike on both the hardware and motor controller software to try this weekend.

I kind of regret saying anything about operating at 85% power as I hate it when others make statements about "only" using 40% throttle, etc, etc... leaving the impression that there's an "excess" in performance that can't be used, when in fact, you're really just saying you haven't figured out the system integration well enough to extract the maximum performance from the vehicle. In the future, I promise to avoid statements like this as they are misleading IMHO. The truth is that we are fine tuning the motor controller settings on the bike to allow us to extract peak power from the motor, a very smooth power delivery with no blips, dips, or hiccups, and also maintain this performance throughout the battery voltage range during the course of the race.

I got my info from the great Articles by Atlus. I got what you expressed above. And that is that you guys are trying to get as much out of the bike as possible.

Great info from the event Brian! Thank you very much. That stuff is like crack to me. :D

Nuts & Volts

27 June 2011, 0532

....Great info from the event Brian! Thank you very much. That stuff is like crack to me. :D
So true :D